Find the spot and keep it simple.
You’ve heard this before. In general, to have a good hunt you have to scout. For a couple days before your hunt, glass for turkeys along field edges. If you see turkeys making a pattern of their habits, you’ve just found you’re hunting spot. Get there before they do and set-up. You know you are in ‘the spot’, so sit tight and wait. In my opinion (assuming the birds are undisturbed) this is one of the most fail proof ways to archery turkey hunt, just make sure you beat them to the spot.
I scouted hard 3 days prior to a hunt I would be guiding. I kept seeing multiple gobblers strutting in a particular hay field. I’d get off work about 4 pm and head out scouting. The birds were always out when I got there. Keith (the guy I was guiding) was scheduled to arrive about 2 pm on Thursday. I wanted to try and hunt that evening, but by the time he got unpacked and checked his bow it was 3 pm. I was concerned we may be too late.
We arrived at the spot and the field was empty, which was good, hopefully we can get set-up before they come out! We quickly went to the exact spot I’d seen 5 big toms strutting the day before. We popped up the blind. I was unzipping the door to set the decoys and stake the blind, when Keith hissed, “Here come the turkeys!” We were temporarily frozen as they stared us down.
While the birds fed behind the blind, I crawled out the front and set the decoy. There were two late toms coming to the field, so we began calling. As Keith was about to draw back on a fat gobbler, a side of the blind collapsed due to the wind! This spooked those two, but luckily the other birds ended up working back to us. Keith shot the gobblers head off with a Magnus Bullhead. He had literally driven 10 hours to hunt for 30 minutes! It was definitely the spot! Make sure you get there before the birds!
